


New Goodbyes and Old Hellos

by hey_its_smoore



Category: The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Genre: Coping, Cute Ending, F/M, Finding Peace, Grief/Mourning, Love, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-29
Updated: 2019-03-29
Packaged: 2019-12-26 01:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18272822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hey_its_smoore/pseuds/hey_its_smoore
Summary: Basically, I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending of The Book Thief. I love Markus Zusak with my whole heart but I just wanted to see more of the characters! This consists of four parts and I'll be posting them all at once so y'all can have a good cry.Keep in mind these are just my opinions :)Enjoy!





	1. A Brief Reflection

Before we begin to dabble back into our leading lady’s life, I feel the need to inform you of the fates of  
some forgotten characters.

*** A ROLE CALL***

Liesel’s Mother: was a Jewish woman named Abigail. She had feathery hair, black and silky smooth.  
She had dangerous, dark eyes. She died in a concentration camp four years after letting Liesel go. Two  
names were on her lips. Can you guess what they were?

Liesel’s Father: was a blonde haired, blue eyed communist named Asher. He hated Hitler, so the world  
hated him. He lived into his mid-nineties, narrowly escaping death during the war by going into hiding.  
He loved to read. He spent the rest of his life looking for Liesel and Werner. He never found either.

Trudy Hubermann: died from a stroke in her sixties. She had one child, Rosa. Trudy visited Liesel only  
once, in 1960. She thanked Liesel for being a true daughter to their parents and asked her if she had any  
belongings from their home. Liesel lied. Trudy never went to see their graves.

Now, you may be thinking, “ What about the son? Hansi? What happened to him?”

He will make an appearance before my work is done. Don’t you worry. The suffering is never-ending.

Everyone meets me eventually.

One to Liesel.


	2. New Beginnings and Sad Endings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Get ready to cry ladies and gents

Liesel lived with the Hermanns until she was 18. It was then, she decided, she would go to college in  
America. Words continued to bounce around her brain. The dead were egging her on.

“ And if there are more raids, keep reading in the shelter.”  
“ Yes, Papa.”

Tell me to keep reading now Papa. Please come tell me to stop being a saumensch and study harder,  
Mama. Ask for a kiss Rudy. Please say something.

Liesel attended Boston College, on a full ride. She wrote her entry essay about the end of her world,  
tasting ashy snowflakes on her tongue and hearing the void of silence from the accordion.  
I would like to add that the sky happened to be a bright, blinding yellow. It was swirling, like pea soup.

Some might even say sickening. I would.

No cigarettes were rolled and no apples were stolen that night.

The day she left Molching was a day void of feelings. Or at least that’s what she wanted it to be.  
She decided to take a walk that morning, Ilsa and the mayor busy gathering the house and confirming  
flights.

Liesel didn’t walk out the front door, no. Why should she? She instead took off her shoes, dropped them,  
and leapt out the window in the library. She half expected to fall on someone. He wasn’t there.  
She then walked down to the Amper, still barefoot. It was the middle of summer, and sweltering hot. She  
shivered.

“ How about a kiss, Saumensch?”

Her lips burned. She tasted flesh. She kept walking.

She walked past the house where champagne was spilled. Her mouth ached to enjoy one more sip, but she  
knew it would never taste as good. Nothing would ever be as good.

She started to walk toward Himmel Street but then decided not to. Houses had been rebuilt. Number 33  
was now 30. There was no Jew fighting Hitler in the basement. No words were being shaken. No  
snowmen were melting. No accordions were breathing. Not tonight. Never again.

Liesel walked back, where Ilsa was waiting with the car. For fun, she clutched the gate, if only for a  
second. She waited for a raspy, hard, loving voice. None came.

** A SMALL NOTE **

That was not the last time Liesel ever came back home,  
but it was the only time she didn’t want to leave as soon as she arrived

She too was haunted by humans.  
Perhaps more than I.

After graduating with a masters in writing, and having taken English classes, Liesel got a small job writing  
for The Boston Globe. It was here she saw Arthur.

Arthur Berg has already made an appearance in this book, where I noted he was still alive.  
Well, here he is.

But is he really living?

He was working as a cop in Boston. He scolded and saved the kid he once was. How ironic.

At first, their relationship was nothing more than crying. Grieving. Mourning. Wishing.  
Nothing mourns forever.  
The stealing began yet again.

**A SMALL LIST OF ACQUIRED ITEMS**

Glances.  
Moments.  
Kisses.  
And soon, hearts.

After 7 months of dating, Arthur proposed. Liesel was ecstatic. Or at least pretended to be.  
She was promoted in her job. Weddings and obituaries.  
How ironic.

Liesel got married at town hall, on June 10th, 1955. Arthur brought his police partner. She brought Max.  
The ceremony was small, happy, and quaint. Glasses of champagne were had.

But not by Liesel.

I should mention Max also moved to the United States soon after their tearful reunion.  
He went to college and got an education degree.

He teaches high school English in a small town outside of Boston with his fighting partner and lover,

Walter Kugler.  
Do you remember him? The fists? The kindness?

**DECEMBER 26TH, 1959**  
Max told Liesel he loved a man. He cried.

But Liesel didn’t.

She told him she was happy he got to be with his soulmate.

Because Liesel wasn’t with hers.

I happened to be passing by them on this particular day.  
The sky that day was black, but filled with stars.  
One of my personal favorites.


	3. Flowers and Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> cute forgiveness, what else can I say
> 
>  
> 
> * Mentions of blood and war*

I did tell you Hans Jr. would make an ill-fated appearance.  
Well, here it is.

In 1957, Liesel had just given birth to a baby boy. He had hair the color of dirty lemons and blue eyes that  
no longer had to be safe. The Bergs both agreed he should be named Rudy. So he was.

As Liesel was on maternity leave, a man visited her. He had grey eyes and a face she thought she knew.  
She, however, had a baby instead of her book in her arms this time.

At the sight of the young mother, Hansi wept.

Icy tears stung his face like the snowflakes at Stalingrad.  
Sorrow swept through his hands like bullets.

He took a seat on the steps  
and told a story.  
After his fight with his father, he walked away fuming. Burning. Angry. Filled with hate.

Ripe in Hitler’s eyes.

He was soon sent to Stalingrad to fight for the cause he loved so much.  
He was willing to die. Wanting to die.

He was not so lucky.

After he was sent home, and declared a hero, he realized what he had done. The bloodstained sheet I  
carried wiped away the ignorance that blinded him. He realized how he had insulted his father. Left his  
mother. Broke their hearts. Shamed his name.

From the destruction and decimation he had saw, he decided to change. At least under the surface. He  
took time to fund anti-war efforts, and send as much information as he could to the allies.  
He then decided he was ready to apologize. To right how he’d wronged. To take back the two words that  
would haunt him for the rest of his life. The last thing he said to his father.  
“ You coward.”  
It was 1948. War was over. Hansi came ready to pick up the words he left on Himmel Street.

**WHAT HE BROUGHT**  
Flowers.  
Apologies.  
Tears.  
He kept none.

33 Himmel Street no longer existed in the same spot it once had. The street had shifted. Moved. Along  
with the bodies and words. Still, he rung the doorbell. A young man answered. Wrong house.

He knocked on every door on the street if they knew an accordion-playing man and Saumensch yelling  
woman. Or the Steiners. Holtzapfels. Pfiffikus.

None did.  
Soon enough, he faced facts. He went to the police station and ended up at the cemetery. He knelt and  
wept. No apologies were accepted that day. Only let go.

Hansi then searched for years for a young girl who liked to read. He had forgotten Liesel’s name and  
didn’t remember her age. All he knew was her scared eyes when he insulted her papa.

Their papa.

Soon, he found Trudy. Apologies were given but not accepted. A door got shoved in his face, but it  
reminded him of Mama. He smiled and persisted. After long talks and tears, he got an address and a  
picture of a woman. No longer a girl. But still holding a book in her arms. Eyes still scared.

And that brings us to today, where Hansi again brought flowers to a door. But this time, his apology was  
accepted. Hugs were given, and laughs were had. Liesel enjoyed his company. It reminded her of Papa.

Liesel gave away the accordion that day, and Hansi played. He breathed. Liesel imagined herself back in  
the basement. She smelled the rust. She heard the notes. She saw her papa. 

They danced.

The sky was a pale blue, with streaks of misty clouds.

Peace.


	4. A Life Fulfilled

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> My version of a conclusion for our baby Max.

Liesel’s family grew as her career did.  
She soon was head journalist.

**THREE BECAME FIVE**

Liesel  
Arthur  
Rudy  
Rosa  
Rebecca.

Each child excelled at school. Top of their class. The best at getting into fist fights. The best at stealing  
apples and making snowmen. Liesel couldn’t be prouder. She loved them and their fighting spirit. She  
loved their names, after the ones she loved most. Rebecca was named Arthur’s sister, who died in his  
arms.

Liesel grew to love Arthur, but never in the way she loved Rudy. Arthur knew this. He told her it was ok.  
He understood. He always understood.

He was a great husband and father. He was so kind, often taking kids home from the station to their house  
for hot chocolate and a smile. He always cared so deeply about Liesel. He loved her very deeply. He was  
a great man.

Years later, Arthur retired and so did Liesel.

She never stopped writing.

The Bergs decided they wanted a fresh start. A tropical climate. Away from the Boston winters and more  
sun. Liesel picked Australia. She liked how alone it was in the ocean, yet so vibrant. Everyone spoke  
English for the most part, and she would be able to fit in. Relax. Remember.

Years passed. Kids graduated. Babies had babies.

Then Max.

Liesel heard he was sick and immediately left Australia.

She flew to his side and was with him the day he died.

They shared memories, of fighting Hitler in the basement and painting over Mein Kampf. Of how the  
words were shaken. More seeds were taken from tears.

Liesel made a snowman inside his room just for fun. She read to him while he slept, and here is where he  
met me. But this time, he decided not to fight. He put down his fists and sighed.

True suffering and true happiness all rolled into one.

I took him gently. His soul was warm. He too was sitting up. Liesel’s words rung in his ears.

His last thoughts included his family, who he’d never found, Walter, who he’d always loved, the  
Hubermanns, who loved him, and lastly Liesel. 

His word shaker.

**A LAST NOTE FROM MAX**  
He hugged me and thanked me.

Why? I asked. For what? What good have I done for you?

He looked me square in the face and smiled at me. He said it again, this time even louder.

Thank you for saving her.

The sky was a rainbow soup, full of reds, oranges, yellows, and purples. It swirled and swished with every  
step I took. It was dotted with stars. Beautiful, bright, shimmering stars. Rosa, Hans, Rudy, and Max’s  
mother. They winked as we left.

A life fulfilled and a last goodbye.


End file.
